Think Tank science museum

Think Tank is the science discovery museum in Birmingham, about an hour away from us by car. We have been here before but it was impossible to take it all in in one day so came back for a second visit, and this one was a whole day job too!!

It's very hands on and excellent for the boys who are now nearly 3 and 5. Our favourite bits were Kid City, a miniature city where children can interact with everything and role play being in the adult world, I was nearly in tears when I saw Reuben filling up one the cars with fuel, just like I do!!

The next best bit was the planetarium and the show we saw called Earth, Moon and Sun, here is a trailer:



Other things we enjoyed were programming the robots, especially Thespian Robot, a humanoid actor robot, looking through the galleries and finding out more about our bodies, and the lovely science garden outside where you can explore these areas:

Energise - Harness renewable energy to power a mechanical theatre - which turbine or solar panel will you choose?

Mechanise - Use a host of intriguing machines to feed the 8m high 'Terminus' machine - can you get enough for an explosion of dancing balls and whistles?

Mobilise - How does it feel riding on a wagon with square wheels on a bumpy road? Find out

It was very cold on this visit so we gave the garden a miss (although last time the boys spent a long time on the terminus machine, and there is more water play) but here are some pictures of the other things we enjoyed:

Isaac weighs his vegetables

Space commander Reuben on a mission

The boys operate the mechanical arm

Water play

Isaac tries to copy the design

Brick laying

This pipe needs mending, must put hard hat on!

Picnic lunch

Cars

Reuben programmes the robot drummer

Isaac check out his tools in the garage

Reuben operates Thespian robot

The phones in Kid City are all connected

Thespian robot

The favourite bit, water play!

Dr Frankenstein's body lab

As Halloween excitement mounts even the ipad is seeing more ghoulish and weird applications.
Our new acquisition is this body lab app from DK publishers.

You have to put all the body parts together (in under 20 seconds for each category, so the boys like to do it slowly, again and again! And I did the quick bit to unlock the next category), when you have enough body parts to make a living creature, you have to put these together and give it a jolt, see what happens!

Aside from the huge enjoyment both boys are getting out of this app, the big plus is that they are familiarising themselves with the human body and how everything fits together (you can pause the game and find out more about what the body parts are), and of course its fun to see if your monster will live! IT'S ALIIIIIIIVEEEEEE!!!

Nobel prize winner was told at school he had no chance in the sciences

Today John Gurdon must be a very pleased man at having jointly won the Nobel prize in medicine and a little bemused at the emergence of a school report from when he was 15 saying:

"I believe Gurdon has ideas about becoming a scientist; on his present showing this is quite ridiculous; if he can't learn simple biological facts he would have no chance of doing the work of a specialist, and it would be a sheer waste of time, both on his part and of those who would have to teach him."

But he seems to possess a great sense of humour, as the BBC reports:
Sir John Gurdon is relishing the story about his failings at school and how his teachers ridiculed any notion that he might pursue a career as a scientist. Dressed casually in a sweater, and rushed from his labs in Cambridge to face the world's media, a fine sense of humour allowed him to take today's tumult in his stride. When I met him, he admitted to being bemused that a Nobel attracted so much more attention than any other prize. I asked what he thought of the 50-year gap between publishing his ground-breaking paper, in 1962, and winning the award only now. Actually, he said, the experiment on the frog cells was carried out back in 1958 - "rather a long time ago", but he said, with infinite patience, that science works best by making sure one's theories are right.

I just loved this story and wanted to share!

Earth School App

Another great ipad app!
How did the universe begin? How was life born on earth? Where did water on earth come from? Welcome to earth school, Earth School is an educational kids app containing 18 different mini games. It shows the big bang to earth generation, from life beginning to dinosaur extinction.

It is aimed at 2 to 6 year olds but I found that Reuben (nearly 5) went through it very quickly and remembered it all at the end (comets, black holes and the division of cells amongst other things), Isaac though (nearly 3) loves it loves it loves it, and squeals with delight every time he helps to feed the dinosaur!

Subjects covered (that a 3 year old will understand) are:
- The big bang
- Black hole
- Planet generation
- Birth of the Galaxy
- Evolution of species
- Saturn's Ring
- Fossil Hunting

More info here

Snibston Discovery Museum

My sister and her four children are staying with us for a week so I was thinking of places to visit that would suit 6 children with ages ranging from 2 to 16... In the nearby town of Coleville here in Leicestershire where we live, is the very wonderful Snibston. And it was great!!
It was established in 1992 following closure of the Colliery (whose site it is now on, you can still see all the heavy machinery that was used to mine coal), Snibston Discovery Museum is the showcase for Leicestershire’s historic science, technology, design and fashion collections. It aims to explore the changing technological world in which we live, through exhibitions, events and our learning programmes, and you can find out more about major technological changes which have affected our everyday lives.
For more information: http://www.leics.gov.uk/index/leisure_tourism/museums/snibston/snibston_about/snibston_museum.htm

The museum (I'm sure it used to be called a discovery park) is divided into sections covering machines, toys, science (human body, tornadoes, you name it), transport from the past (we loved the old milk float and planes), fashion, water technology (the outside park has canals, dams, pumps and much to experiment with), and a great playground.

Here are some of our favourite bits:

The plasma globe

Can you build the pipe system?

Henry the cycling skeleton

Making Henry move

Gears, can you place them so that moving one all the
others move too?

Locks for very small boats

Seeing how the locks work

Navigating a boat through the canals

Canals

Little miners, just about to go into the (play) tunnel and search
for coal

A happy little miner who had a great day at Snibston

See inside your body

This book is currently one of Reuben's favourites, it's from Usborne Publishing (http://www.usborne.com) a great source of resources for us.

Reuben likes to look through it and lift the flaps, but it works best when he notices something in "real life" like when he drinks something and it goes the wrong way or if he can feel his heart beat quickly, and he can run to the book and find the corresponding part of the body to see inside and understand what's going on.

You can find it on Amazon (where we got our copy) or on the publisher's website
http://www.usborne.com/catalogue/catalogue.aspx?id=1927

The happy scientist

We LOVE this guy!!! http://thehappyscientist.com

Hunting with an umbrella...

Science videos and experiments galore from the American science educator Rob Krampf, mainly for older children but Reuben enjoys the videos, which are sorted into study units as well so you can either mix and match or follow progressively.

William's Words in Science

We met William Hirst at Hesfes (the annual home education festival in the UK, will talk more of that soon) as he had a stall promoting his book and did some really nice science demonstrations/workshops. William is a science teacher with a background in biochemistry, biophysics and bio-engineering (he has degrees in all of these!) and has written a dictionary of scientific terminology and basics.
We bought the book as it is really useful when Reuben asks a question like: what is DNA (well, I know that one... but things like: how is wind made, or what exactly is a chemical?) but it is mainly aimed at secondary/high school level. Reuben really liked William's model of the human body and would often stop to try and rearrange the organs... William would not lose the opportunity to quiz him: what is this organ? Reuben: I don't know. William: yes you do! Reuben: the lungs? Not many people would talk to a four year old as if he was fourteen! I liked that.
You can find more information on the book on his website, he also has some free resources and puzzles.
http://www.williamswords.co.uk